


ashes

by HeavensArcher



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Backstory, Gen, I love how we all thought of all the sad possibilities and somehow Liam came up with worse, Second Person, episode 18 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 16:36:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14622744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeavensArcher/pseuds/HeavensArcher
Summary: the ashes coat your skin, the screams ring in your ears, the smoke clings to your throat and chokes you.





	ashes

You still feel it: the flames licking gently against your fingers, the heat against your skin, the feelings pure patriotic pride that melt into horror and madness.

You still hear it: the cracking and creaking of the wood, the crackle of the fire, the voices that begin to echo through the night as screams where there once were proud words and nothing but love and is this all you will remember of them now?

You still smell it: the scents of your childhood home and its fields, the remains of the meal mutter had spent the evening preparing intermingling with the smell of smoke and the choking scent of burning human flesh.

You still see it: your childhood in flames, the house full of nothing but love and support cracking and groaning under the fire until its smouldering remains were all that was left, the moment you feel almost as if you left your body and all you could see was yourself screaming, crying, shaking, speaking in tongues.

You spend the years in between in a haze. Your eyes full of embers, your throat choked with smoke and ash, your ears ringing with the sound of screams. You shake, and you scream. You scream without words, an animal speaking the tongue of primal pain. Your hands feel burned, raw and blistered. You rub at them constantly – pick at the wounds – you try to scratch the soot from your arms.

A feeling of light. Of calm. A woman’s hands upon you and a warmth – different to the one that haunts you: divine and homely and forgiving and _light_ and suddenly you remember. You remember far more than you should.

Everything is clear. For once you are not the one screaming.

You are a monster. But you are not the only one.

You have meaning, a purpose. You must learn, learn of forbidden magics, forbidden ages. You must become more than anything you were and grasp at the very threads that hold reality and you must _force them to your will._ Time itself must bend to you. _It must it’s all you have left. It’s the only thing that could fix this._

You will destroy that which took the weapon he crafted and turned it against those that had provided the metal.

You will take the magic he taught you, and turn it back on the teacher. You will become more than he made you.

He will regret crossing your path.


End file.
